Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I imagine a short time ago there was a meeting of minds in some Nestle board room- one of those ones where people toss out ideas on what their hottest new limited edition candy bar should be. There must have been some boring guys who got up and rattled on about doing something new with white chocolate, or something equally as mundane. I imagine the head honcho was staring out the window with a look of distaste on his face as boring idea after boring idea was thrown his way.
I'm guessing at this point, just when everyone thinks the meeting is over and nothing got accomplished, some revolutionary candy bar hero steps forward. At first, his voice is lost in the chatter of the others, but then he raises it to be heard over them. His words strike a chord with the man in charge, who suddenly silences the crowd and ushers the man forward and asks him to repeat what he said. Three simple words.
"Girl Scout Cookies."
A hushed silence falls over them all.
Followed by applause. They hoist him up on their shoulders and parade through the office.
A trio of candy gold is born.
The LIMITED EDITION GIRL SCOUT COOKIE FLAVORED NESTLE CRUNCH BARS.
Hold onto your hats, ladies and gents, because they are EXCELLENT.
First up is the THIN MINTS...

If you're like me, you're no stranger to sitting down with a sleeve of Thin Mints and then looking down a half hour later and realizing that you just ate way too many cookies. So you twist the wrapper shut and put it down on the table, only to open it back up a minute later when you decide that 4 cookies aren't worth putting away. Do yourself a favor and don't get more than one of these candy bars because the exact same thing will happen. You'll wake from a candy coma covered in wrappers and not know what happened.

It's basically chocolate wafers with chocolate mint cream in the middle, with crispies, covered in more chocolate. It's exactly the flavor of a Thin Mint cookie, just with a different texture. It's lighter, more airy. I feel like this works in its favor, allowing flavor to move around better in your mouth. Everything about it is delicious. I couldn't say a bad thing about this candy bar if I tried.

Next up is the Peanut Butter Creme...

I figured these would be called Tagalongs, like the actual Girl Scout Cookie, but hey, I'm sure the folks at Nestle have their reasons. This thing is like a Reese's Stick on steroids. It's bigger, thicker, and more intense. It's like a Reese's stick got made fun of for being thin and weak and stuck a needle in its butt, drank protein shakes, and hit the gym for a year.

It's two giant chunks of wafers with peanut butter creme in the middle with some crispies on top. It's a simple recipe, but man is it good. If you're a peanut butter lover, like you all know I am, then you will enjoy this candy bar. It cuffs you across your smiling face with peanut butter flavor and unlike a Reese's Stick, it has those crispies on top adding a little extra texture. It's all in all a perfect peanut butter fanatic's candy bar.

Last but not certainly not least...the Caramel & Coconut...AKA SAMOA!!!!!!

Ladies & gents, this candy bar is a work of friggin' art. I'm actually finishing one as I type this and it's glorious. It's like golden light is shining down from candy bar heaven and when I look up into it, God himself is looking down at me, giving me a thumbs up.

Despite the other two being so good, this one easily wins the top spot among the three. It's wafers with coconut caramel creme, chewy caramel and toasted coconut covered in chocolate. It somehow perfectly captures the flavor of a Samoa, but I think also improves it somehow. Perhaps it seems like the chocolate here is lighter, or maybe because it's not as chewy as a real Samoa, so the caramel doesn't overtake it. It seems like every part of this candy bar works in unison to create perfection. If you're a fan of Samoa cookies or coconut in general, scoop these up. Hell, good luck, because I'll be honest with you, I'm going to be buying up every one of these that I see. I'm going to stockpile them like I'm on an episode of Doomsday Preppers.

My final words on these... they are all fantastic.
Thin Mints- A
Peanut Butter Creme- A
Caramel & Coconut- A+

Friday, June 22, 2012

Sometimes you're on a roadtrip to the largest video game arcade in the world for your gf's bday, sometimes you're hungry and need to stop to get something to supercharge the upcoming gaming experience, and sometimes you find something so outstanding that you need to blog about how goddamn awesome they are. ENTER: Deep River Snacks Aged Cheddar Horseradish kettle cooked potato chips.

I snagged one of these bags up for $1 and was slightly weary, knowing that horseradish is a flavor that is traditionally handled very poorly by, pretty much everybody.

the disappointment when you realize the bag of chips you bought is half full :(

The smell of these tasty little crisps filled my 91 Cutlass with the greasy goodness from what you come to expect from a kettle chip.

chip dusting level:omega

Upon snacking down on one of these beautiful dusty creatures, you immediately get the aged cheddar flavor, old and musky, exactly like an aged cheese is supposed to taste. And then it hits you, the quick horseradish burn that fills your mouth with flavor fast as if Paul Walker himself was driving a suped up flavor Honda into your mouth. And just like Vin Diesel at the end of Fast 5, the burn is gone, and you're left waiting, wanting to stare once again upon his muscly visage in the form of glorious taste upon your tongue.

man, that got a little weird....

ANYWAY, buy these chips.
I'll be on the lookout for larger bags of these in my grocery store like a wild man hepped up on bath salts looking for a face to shred apart and devour.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Sometimes, living in New Hampshire, we see commercials on television promoting restaurants that are nowhere near us. Normal people say to themselves, "Heck, if I'm ever on a road trip and I see one of those places, I'll be sure to stop!" But we are another breed. When we see one of these commercials we immediately consult the internet. We find out where the nearest one is and try to decide if it's worth the drive to go check it out.

Well when we were contacted by Popeye's chicken, asking if we'd be interested in reviewing their new Rip'n Chick'n, we did just that. Looked like the nearest Popeyes that wasn't a small rest-stop version was a little over an hour away, so we hopped in the Fatguyfoodblog-mobile and made it happen.

None of us had ever had Popeyes before so we were eager to try it out. Our first impression when walking through the door was surprise at how insanely busy it was.

and this was at 3 in the afternoon!

The staff wasn't messing around though. They were like a well oiled machine, taking orders, filling them and getting customers on their way in record time. The entire time we were there, the line was this long, a flow of people constantly through the door.

They were running a great deal for the Rip'n Chick'n. $3.99 for the chicken, fries and a buttermilk biscuit. That became the backbone of our meals. How can you pass up a deal like that? We couldn't. So we all got that and then some other things from the menu.

helluva spread right there

So what exactly is the Rip'n Chick'n?

It's a bunch of stuck together chicken fingers!

Some Rip'n Chick'n's are prettier than others.

The Rip'n Chick'n is basically a chicken breast that is sliced into strips but still connected at the bottom. Then it is battered and fried creating something similar to a blooming onion... but chicken. It's a bundle of chicken fingers that you tear off to eat. Definitely an interesting meal. They kind of looked like deep fried crab...

or in Mike's case, an alien hand.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

You rip it...then you dip it.

The first thing I noticed after plucking a petal from this chicken flower, was that it was definitely spicy. One of the descriptions says it's marinated in 4 different peppers before being battered and fried and you could definitely taste them. But being a wimp when it comes to hot stuff, I was still able to enjoy this without it getting too hot. But don't be fooled, the Rip'n Chick'n does have a bite to it! It was a bit too much for wimpy Mike to like it, but he wasn't doing himself any favors by dipping already spicy chicken in what was a very cool dipping sauce- "blackened ranch." All in all the chicken was great, the spice was tasty and I thought the batter was great. Their array of dipping sauces worked out nicely for these too, (except for them being extra money per sauce. Good thing we charmed one of the ladies there into sneaking us a few).

The biscuits were buttery & delicious!

Looking around, it seemed like they were having another promotion...THE SUMMER OF PEACH! So I was sure to pour myself a peach iced tea, which I noticed you could purchase by the gallon jug! That's a fat guy's dream. Like that drink you just poured yourself at the fast food restaurant? BRING HOME A JUG! But the other part of the summer of peach? The Peach Pie! So I got one of those but decided that I should also get an apple one and put them in a head to head battle.

The peach was tasty and sweet. But in the end the apple pie won this bout with ease. It was covered in a pound of cinnamon sugar and every bite was delicious.

So in the end, our adventure to Popeye's was a success. We found and reviewed the fabled Rip'n Chick'n, and introduced ourselves to a corner of the fast food universe that we had never visited before. We no longer have to wonder what Popeye's is like when we see the commercials on television. There's no longer that gap in our fat guy brains. We've filled it in with tear-away chicken fingers, cinnamon-sugar dusted apple pies, incredibly crisp and quality chicken tenders and nuggets, and Cajun fries (which were quite crisp and delicious). We have to say, if you find yourself out in the open and you spot a Popeye's and you've never had it, stop on in. Scoop up a Rip'n Chick'n, a couple of apple pies & a jug of Peach tea. You'll be glad you did.
For more information on Popeyes restaurants or the Rip'n Chick'n check out www.popeyes.com.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Sometimes I think we should change the name of Fatguyfoodblog to the GuyswhoonlyreviewnewflavorsofOreosblog. I mean, if you look at our track record, it would really fit. However it just doesn't have the same ring to it. Fatguyfoodblog is almost a household name now anyway, so we can't really change it.
But as you may have guessed, we are once again here to review a new flavor of Oreo. The flavor in question? ICE CREAM OREO: RAINBOW SHURE, BERT!

Sherbet & cookies...together! Kinda.

So once again we find ourselves faced with a new incarnation of the Oreo. Will it be as mind blowingly good as the Birthday Cake Oreos? Will it have the same strange cream as the Berry Burst Ice Cream Oreos? Will they be too sweet like the Golden Oreo Fudge Cremes? Will one flavor take over the cookie like with the Creamsicle Oreos? Or will they dominate the cookie world like the Triple Double Neopolitan Oreos? (at Fatguyfoodblog headquarters we refer to these as TRIP/DUBZ. I'd like for all of you to do the same.)
What exactly is the deal with the Rainbow Shure, Bert Oreos?

Look at those pretty colors!

Basically they take the Golden Oreo (which I have recently deemed the superior cookie) and slap a whole lot of brightly colored, SHERBET flavored cream in the middle. Much like the Birthday Cake Oreos, the second you open this package your nose is bombarded with the scent of the cookies. However this time it's not as pleasant. It's a VERY strong sherbet smell. It's not bad, but it's just a bit strong.

Looks like Play Doh!

They taste like they smell. Very strong flavor of Sherbet. It's not one of those times where they try for a flavor and don't hit it and it just tastes like chemicals. This definitely tastes like you're eating a bowl of Rainbow Sherbet... just as a cookie. When you do the classic Oreo move where you screw off the top cookie to lick off the cream, you find that the cream is strange. It's thick like Play Doh. It literally felt like I was eating a childs modeling compound. (That's actually what they say Play Doh is on their website). Except... it tastes like too strong sherbet. When you eat the cookie together, it isn't nearly as bad, but in the end these aren't the kind of Oreo that you are able to eat more than one or two of easily.
Unless of course, you are Sherbet crazy. If you are, these will be your favorite cookie of all time.
I give these new Oreos a C+